Iron Canyon Reservoir History

Iron Canyon Reservoir was traditionally used by the local tribes to test the young men as a manhood passage.  They were given a knife and told to live off the land around Iron Canyon Reservoir for a month.

The Pacific Gas and Electric company began the vast hydroelectric projects in the area in the 1950's and 1960's.  A dam was built on the McCloud river and a portion of the river diverted through a very long tunnel to Iron Canyon Reservoir which acts as a water storage forebay.  Water is then sent by pipe to the James Black Powerhouse,  which is one of the largest owned by P.G.& E., and has a head of 1200 feet and produces 270 megawatts of power.  The water then enters the Pit River.  There is no overspill (intentional) from the reservoir into any downstream creeks.

The lands are now part of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, except for three parcels, two owned by individuals and one owned by P.G. & E. amounting to a total of about fifty acres.  The many arms of this reservoir make for a very large shoreline, making it perfect for canoeing and float tube fishing.  There are two maintained camp grounds, one by P.G. & E. (Hawkins) and one by the USFS (Dedlum).  There is also a non maintained campground used by the loggers near Little Gap Creek.

The trout population is very stable and the water is very productive since the McCloud River is very high quality cool water.  The Department of Fish and Game regularly plants rainbow trout for a put and catch fishery.  Amazingly these planters survive since most planters die in three weeks, and grow to fairly decent size.  Some of these planted fish survive to spawn.

There are five creeks that act as nurseries and produce native Rainbow and Brown trout.  The largest brown reported caught was 31 inches and the largest Rainbow reported caught was 27 inches.  Numerous trout are in the 12 to 18 inch range. All of these creeks flow through culverts just prior to reaching the reservoir and all the culverts have cut deep pools underneath them creating fish passage barriers.  During spawning season the pools below the culverts are black with fish trying to make it up to the culverts.  Paths can be seen beaten through the brush to presumably net these fish. The Brown trout stack up in fall (around Thanksgiving) and the Rainbows stack up in the spring. The average distance from the culverts to the reservoir is about 0.2 miles of gravel spawn area.  Above the culverts are several miles of spawn area.  See Map

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